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SHAMELESS SERVICE

// March 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // humour

So this is going to be a total rant, but I’m wondering if there is actually a ranking by country on the quality of service delivery in that country, and which of the last 5 places this country occupies. And which countries occupy the first five places, so I can start getting my visa’s organised.

I have just been through a series of incidents which have really left me shocked at the mutt-dumbness of people in business who do not understand this really simple and fundamental principle: customers don’t complain to your face, they just don’t come back….and they DO complain to their friends, family, babysitters, pool-guys, tennis partners, vet-shop assistants, etc..you get the picture…word of mouth can just as easily destroy a business as it can make one.

I really find it quite sad that we all seem to have so much to rant about on this subject. I also find it disturbingly wrong that instead of demanding and expecting good service, I am pleasantly surprised when I actually receive it.

Possibly my annoyance stems from the fact that I’ve had that “service with a smile” etiquette shoved down my throat from work-experience day 1, so I simply come to expect it in others. Like many other naive, vulnerable unfortunates finding themselves much in need of a little extra dosh once that wellspring of pocket money ran dry after school, I ended up in that sheer gut wrenching horror that is waitressing (or waitronning? they’re all PC now).

So, like many other foolish mortals, I chose to work at the Spur. Where that’s concerned, let me simply say that I don’t eat there. Ever. I have my reasons.

But I digress…service delivery: if at 18, you want to go to the loony hippy “summer of love” party in red hill (ticket price R200) where Bob, the really cute guy from your BIO 101 class will almost certainly be (or so his friend Ted says), you very quickly learn to suck up to Mrs Jones, her snotty nosed birthday boy, and his 32 snotty-nosed screaming little friends. For 6 hours. No cigarette break. 4 types of fizzy drink spilled down the new uniform (which you have to buy yourself). Lungs bursting from inhaling helium and squeaking like mickey mouse to entertain the kids.

And all the while, a happy beaming face, which beams even more once the old girl totters out leaving you the “xx Spur record tip of that year”.

So..good service pays off…and even if the old bat had left a miserable R20 tip, there will always be people who don’t appreciate good service when they get it.

I think they spoil it for the rest of us actually.

I think it’s a hard and fast fact that none of these people ever worked as waiters.. You could probably put money on it. If you show someone true appreciation for doing the job they’re damn well meant to be doing, well, the more likely they are to continue doing it well.

So, suck-uppery is a vital tool in business..I think small businesses are much more acutely aware of this and tend to get it right a lot of the time, because they are in a sink-or-swim scenario. It’s actually when big-business and corporate chains or whatever they’re called get sloppy and stop caring that I get most pissed off – they should know better. Also, they make more money. They should be able to pay more people to suck up…or people more to suck up…whatever. It exhausts me just thinking about it.

TBC…